BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE WOMAN OF MYSTERY
THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE
THE SECRET OF SAREK
EYES OF INNOCENCE
THE THREE EYES
THE EIGHT STROKES OF THE CLOCK

"You don't regret anything, Isabel?" he whispered.

THE
TREMENDOUS EVENT

BY
MAURICE LE BLANC

TRANSLATED BY
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA de MATTOS

NEW YORK
THE MACAULAY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
THE MACAULAY COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The tremendous event of the 4th. of June, whose consequences affectedthe relations of the two great Western nations even more profoundlythan did the war, has called forth, during the last fifty years, aconstant efflorescence of books, memoirs and scientific studies oftruthful reports and fabulous narratives. Eye-witnesses have relatedtheir impressions; journalists have collected their articles intovolumes; scientists have published the results of their researches;novelists have imagined unknown tragedies; and poets have lifted uptheir voices. There is no detail of that tragic day but has beenbrought to light; and this is true likewise of the days which wentbefore and of those which came after and of all the reactions, moralor social, economic or political, by which it made itself felt,throughout the twentieth century, in the destinies of the world.

There was nothing lacking but Simon Dubosc's own story. And it wasstrange that we should have known only by reports, usually fantastic,the part played by the man who, first by chance and then by hisindomitable courage and later still by his clear-sighted enthusiasm,was thrust into the very heart of the adventure.

To-day, when the nations are gathered about the statue over-lookingthe arena in which the hero fought, does it not seem permissible toadd to the legend the embellishment of a reality which will notmisrepresent it? And, if it is found that this reality trenches tooclosely upon the man's private life, need we object?

It was in Simon Dubosc that the western spirit first became consciousof itself and it is the whole man that belongs to history.

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